Gay Dad Won't Face Charges After Punching Anti Gay MAGA WhoTricked/For Interview
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| David Vulin (left) and his husband Anthony Vulin (right), with their infant son, Ante | GoFundMe |
A gay dad will not face charges after he punched a right-wing influencer who tricked him into a homophobic interview.
32-year-old David Vulin fulfilled a “pre-filing diversion,” a program that allows certain people to fulfill requirements like community service or rehabilitation to avoid charges. Vulin’s attorney, R.J. Dreiling, told the LA Times he could not discuss the particulars of his client’s diversion agreement.
The incident in question took place in April. Video circulated online showing David Vulin with his husband, Anthony Vulin, being interviewed by anti-LGBTQ+ commentator Ryley Niemi. Anthony Vulin said at the time that the interview team lied to the couple and told them they were from CNN.
But it soon became clear the interviewer was not from CNN as he began to ask them hostile and homophobic questions. “Have you ever heard about the statistics coming out that gay men are much more likely to commit child molestation?” Niemi asked.
The couple looked shocked and simply said they did not and that it sounded “crazy.”
Niemi kept going. “Don’t you think it’s weird that you guys have a child but neither of you are a woman?” he asked.
Anthony Vulin, who was holding his baby, continued to smile uncomfortably and said no. The couple then stared in stunned silence as Niemi asked if they used a surrogate. When they didn’t reply, Niemi added, “You paid a woman $50,000 to be pregnant?”
At that, the couple had had enough. They began to walk away as David Vulin shouted, “Who the f**k are you? I’m gonna f**king kick your a**.” He then shoved Niemi.
In a follow-up video, Niemi claimed the couple then followed him down the sidewalk, but it’s hard to know for sure what happened since the original video he posted cuts from David Vulin shoving him to the next confrontation. In that moment, Niemi said he was worried about the baby’s safety, and an unidentified person in a green sweatshirt defended the couple, shouting to Niemi, “We are asking you to leave!”
At that, David Vulin lunged at Niemi and punched him in the head. The video then cuts to the unidentified person telling Niemi and his team that they all deserve to be killed.
The Times described Niemi as “stunned” by the lack of charges filed against Vulin. “This wasn’t a normal battery. I walked away 500 feet,” Niemi said. “He hit me in the back of the head and gave me a concussion.”
“If they said something to me about how being conservative is bad, and I punched them, I really don’t think I’d get off the hook for that,” he said, saying he was suspicious of the couple’s parenting “because they brought their baby out to the gay clubs at 9 p.m.”
The interview, however, took place on a seemingly quiet sidewalk where the men were strolling with their baby. They were not at a club.
While happy David Vulin won’t face charges, the Vulins are upset that Niemi – who they described as “the person who provoked this encounter with hate speech then filmed and monetized it” – is facing no consequences for his actions.
But they said they are “determined to turn this into something meaningful” and that “Anthony is working with state legislators on a bill to hold rage-bait creators accountable for the harm they cause.”
After Niemi posted a video of the confrontation in April, some of the replies – even from conservatives – expressed solidarity with the Vulins, acknowledging that assault is never the answer but still scorning Niemi for confronting the couple and baiting them with homophobic questions.
“This isn’t a real conversation,” one person wrote. “It’s staged provocation. Approaching a family with a baby and pressing them with loaded accusing questions isn’t a debate, it’s harassment for content. I’m conservative, and I draw a clear line here. You’re not engaging in good faith—you’re trying to provoke a reaction, then using that reaction to justify your narrative. Any parent will defend their child when they feel targeted. That’s not political—that’s basic instinct. This doesn’t create understanding—it just fuels division. If the goal is attention, it works. If the goal is anything meaningful, it fails.”
Another wrote, “Come on, man, I’m trying to be on your side here, but you went up to a couple and made some very hard accusations to their face, even going as far as to imply they were involved. That’s genuinely incredibly rude and feels like you’re stooping to the level of crazed leftists.”
A third added, “Go ask a straight couple questions implying they molest their newborn and I guarantee you the man will immediately behave aggressively to defend his family. That’s what happened in this video. You are completely blinded by a false narrative.”
In the immediate aftermath, online donors raised over $71,000 for David Vulin’s legal costs. The GoFundMe has since reached over $212,000.
“We were targeted in a way that was deeply upsetting and destabilizing for our family,” Anthony Vulin wrote on the GoFundMe crowdfunding campaign. “My husband and I have fought incredibly hard to build the life we have today and to welcome our baby into it, which makes this moment especially painful and overwhelming.”
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